Police brief England players on online racism threat ahead of Euro 2024

Police officers have briefed England’s players on the threat of online racism during Euro 2024, reassuring them they will “take seriously” any abuse during the tournament.

Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, and Jadon Sancho were targeted after missing penalties in the team’s defeat at Wembley in the final of the last championship in 2021.

But the national lead for football policing in England and Wales says it has now become easier to prosecute offenders because social media companies have become more cooperative.

“We’ve explained [to the players] that we are there to support them,” said chief constable Mark Roberts, who said his officers briefed the squad at England’s St George’s Park training base in March.

“We’ve given them some advice on how they can protect themselves with setting up their own accounts to try and prevent it happening, and to reassure them that we are there.

“If people do engage in this behaviour, we will deal with it and, where possible, we will prosecute.”

Roberts’ warning comes as the authorities prepare to send the biggest deployment of British police officers to an overseas tournament for more than a decade, with hundreds of thousands of fans set to travel next month.